Why are people insisting that "fluff" is a collector vs focus issue?
Here is a hypo to better explain "fluff":
Player A and Player B both have 160 toons.
The top 100 toons are identical; same level, gear, and mods.
Player A levels his remaining 60 toons to lvl 85 and g8.
Player B leaves these 60 toons at lvl 1 and g1.
Player A now has an inflated GP by 600k.
Player A is not punished and Player B is not rewarded for (lack of) focus.
Player A is punished and B is rewarded for NOT improving bad toons.
This IS Paper Zombie Grand Arena.

Your exemple is only telling if player A is punished. To be punished player A needs to meet a player C who has the same gp as him (600k more than B ), but much stronger, and who got those in an « unfair » way, the only existing one being he played for much longer.
People seem to take for granted that if you have fluff you will be at an « unfair » disadvantage but it doesn’t work like this.

In your example if both Player A and B are day 1 players the fluff will not punish A since he can’t meet someone with both same gp as him and less fluff.

This is absolutely not like paper zombie since player’s A roster is strictly stronger than player’s B.

How is it stronger by any practical term? How can't he meet someone with both the same gp and less fluff? He absolutely can and does as my current matching in GA.

It is strictly stronger. The fact that you can’t make use of that strenght in grand arena doesn’t make it less true. You won’t use it in squad arena either. It’s still stronger.
If you read carefully I said as an example, if they are day 1 player they can’t. It’s very obvious they can’t, since there is no way a day 1 fluffy player meets a player with same gp but no fluff. Where would that player come from ? Unless it’s a whale who bought tons of stuff, and then the matchup is unbalanced in a perfectly fair way : the whale paid for that competitive advantage.

Thanks for answering yourself. Day 1 player with fluff will get matched with spenders of later eras. But he can also get matched with any other day 1 player too with less fluff and more geared toons. It's not like day 1 players are made in a factory.

That’s not possible if what people have been saying is true, which is « i didn’t waste any ressources because the fluff and the main teams don’t overlap ». Then the day 1 player with fluff will just have the same main teams as the other but more gp.
If it’s not the case and they wasted ressources on useless stuff again the matchup is unbalanced in a fair way.

I don't agree with your point either. I'm totally fine with being rolf stomped by a whale. Just not because of my actual roster strength in game playing terms which GP simply doesn't measure.

But then again that’s not really how things happen most of the time. You read a few threads on the forums and it feels like 99.9% of the matchups were unfairly unbalanced. I really don’t believe it to be true.

The question is do you want fair matches or not? Do you want matches that finishes before they began just via quick glimpse of roster comparison and g12s? Or do you rather have a grand royale with your opponent where it boils down to a battle of wits?

You are trying to make it so an unbalanced matchup is always unfair. If i invested more money, time, energy and thoughts in my roster to be better than my opponents, and end up being actually better than them, i don’t see how that’s unfair.
That’s where the disagreement between us is.

As i said before in a post, when i upgrade my roster it’s not to have the chance to lose against stronger people than before, it’s to be sure to win against the same people than before.

You are only talking in theoraticals. And you are talking as if the game launched with TW/GA i.e. with our retrospective viewpoints eminating in light of how matchmaking is made in these 2 modes. A simple look at your roster supports why this is the case. You never had the option to put resources to anything beyond what was necessary at the time and what catching up you had to do.

What's up with all the fluff in your roster btw? You fluffed quite a bit alright. You just didn't have the resources to fluff as much as I do (without any impact elsewhere)

I am not really but it should be basically irrelevant since again, if « back in the days this was not considered fluff » is true, then most players should have this fluff, it won’t affect matchups most of the time, right ?

As for my fluff, i’ve said it here before i think (or meant to). I try to avoid wasting ressources when possible, but any character not lvl 1 has abilities lvl 3, not further because i have no mkIII to spare. I unlock and promote every character and ship everytime i can for platoon purpose and i might put on some very common gear from time to time. I also start working on teams i want to play in the future before i can max them out. So you see you think i have « fluff ».
And yet both my 1 round matchups were insanely easy, and my currents 7 opponents are all below or close to me strenght-wise. So you could say :
- I didn’t make any special efforts to keep my roster extra lean (even the opposite)
- My first 9 matchups ranged from very favorable to me to even
Looks to me like things are simply not as dire as people want to believe.

The player are not matched based on their total playing time, do they? And I'm not opting for that to be the case either. Any player matches is legit as long as it considers other factors that got listed numerous times through this topic.

We don't need to act or opiniate only if a situation is dire or the end is nigh. Anything less than what can realistically be done by the company is enough for such. We each swing their actions in some way even though it's a very slow process. I'm pretty sure this one will too given time despite the naysayers who are willingly short sighted in their take of the situation.

So if i understand correctly what you say here, everyone agreeing with you is right and doing a good thing for the community, everyone disagreeing is intellectually deficient and a weight for the community. It was nice talking to you but really, don’t stop yourself from ignoring me from now on.
Edit : my bad not intellectually deficient, just dishonest. Because of course you are so obviously right that not agreeing must be lack of honesty.

I am not really but it should be basically irrelevant since again, if « back in the days this was not considered fluff » is true, then most players should have this fluff, it won’t affect matchups most of the time, right ?

Only if both players started around the same time. GP and time are not always synonymous. I started in April 2016, and have ~3.5m gp. One of my guildmates started just over a year ago, and has about 50k gp less than me. What it means is he missed the dooku/old ben meta, wiggs, maul, triple cleanse, etc... lots of old metas, that I played through. Now, not all of those characters are useless, but it does mean that there are characters I may have geared up that he never did, because in the last year they haven't been worthwhile.

That is true but then again your example doesn’t show anything unfair going on. You say that as if gearing luminara in june 2016 prevented you to gear chewie when he did last month but it doesn’t. Every character he got you could have gotten too exactly when he got them since you were playing when he was. Every ressource he used you could have used the exact same. Meaning if you both made smart choices, the only ways he caught up are by being more active, getting more ressources (better arena ranks and such) or spending more money. If any of those things make him better than you in ga now, wouldn’t you say it’s deserved ?

Why are people insisting that "fluff" is a collector vs focus issue?
Here is a hypo to better explain "fluff":
Player A and Player B both have 160 toons.
The top 100 toons are identical; same level, gear, and mods.
Player A levels his remaining 60 toons to lvl 85 and g8.
Player B leaves these 60 toons at lvl 1 and g1.
Player A now has an inflated GP by 600k.
Player A is not punished and Player B is not rewarded for (lack of) focus.
Player A is punished and B is rewarded for NOT improving bad toons.
This IS Paper Zombie Grand Arena.

Your exemple is only telling if player A is punished. To be punished player A needs to meet a player C who has the same gp as him (600k more than B ), but much stronger, and who got those in an « unfair » way, the only existing one being he played for much longer.
People seem to take for granted that if you have fluff you will be at an « unfair » disadvantage but it doesn’t work like this.

In your example if both Player A and B are day 1 players the fluff will not punish A since he can’t meet someone with both same gp as him and less fluff.

This is absolutely not like paper zombie since player’s A roster is strictly stronger than player’s B.

How is it stronger by any practical term? How can't he meet someone with both the same gp and less fluff? He absolutely can and does as my current matching in GA.

It is strictly stronger. The fact that you can’t make use of that strenght in grand arena doesn’t make it less true. You won’t use it in squad arena either. It’s still stronger.
If you read carefully I said as an example, if they are day 1 player they can’t. It’s very obvious they can’t, since there is no way a day 1 fluffy player meets a player with same gp but no fluff. Where would that player come from ? Unless it’s a whale who bought tons of stuff, and then the matchup is unbalanced in a perfectly fair way : the whale paid for that competitive advantage.

Thanks for answering yourself. Day 1 player with fluff will get matched with spenders of later eras. But he can also get matched with any other day 1 player too with less fluff and more geared toons. It's not like day 1 players are made in a factory.

That’s not possible if what people have been saying is true, which is « i didn’t waste any ressources because the fluff and the main teams don’t overlap ». Then the day 1 player with fluff will just have the same main teams as the other but more gp.
If it’s not the case and they wasted ressources on useless stuff again the matchup is unbalanced in a fair way.

I don't agree with your point either. I'm totally fine with being rolf stomped by a whale. Just not because of my actual roster strength in game playing terms which GP simply doesn't measure.

But then again that’s not really how things happen most of the time. You read a few threads on the forums and it feels like 99.9% of the matchups were unfairly unbalanced. I really don’t believe it to be true.

The question is do you want fair matches or not? Do you want matches that finishes before they began just via quick glimpse of roster comparison and g12s? Or do you rather have a grand royale with your opponent where it boils down to a battle of wits?

You are trying to make it so an unbalanced matchup is always unfair. If i invested more money, time, energy and thoughts in my roster to be better than my opponents, and end up being actually better than them, i don’t see how that’s unfair.
That’s where the disagreement between us is.

As i said before in a post, when i upgrade my roster it’s not to have the chance to lose against stronger people than before, it’s to be sure to win against the same people than before.

You are only talking in theoraticals. And you are talking as if the game launched with TW/GA i.e. with our retrospective viewpoints eminating in light of how matchmaking is made in these 2 modes. A simple look at your roster supports why this is the case. You never had the option to put resources to anything beyond what was necessary at the time and what catching up you had to do.

What's up with all the fluff in your roster btw? You fluffed quite a bit alright. You just didn't have the resources to fluff as much as I do (without any impact elsewhere)

I am not really but it should be basically irrelevant since again, if « back in the days this was not considered fluff » is true, then most players should have this fluff, it won’t affect matchups most of the time, right ?

As for my fluff, i’ve said it here before i think (or meant to). I try to avoid wasting ressources when possible, but any character not lvl 1 has abilities lvl 3, not further because i have no mkIII to spare. I unlock and promote every character and ship everytime i can for platoon purpose and i might put on some very common gear from time to time. I also start working on teams i want to play in the future before i can max them out. So you see you think i have « fluff ».
And yet both my 1 round matchups were insanely easy, and my currents 7 opponents are all below or close to me strenght-wise. So you could say :
- I didn’t make any special efforts to keep my roster extra lean (even the opposite)
- My first 9 matchups ranged from very favorable to me to even
Looks to me like things are simply not as dire as people want to believe.

The player are not matched based on their total playing time, do they? And I'm not opting for that to be the case either. Any player matches is legit as long as it considers other factors that got listed numerous times through this topic.

We don't need to act or opiniate only if a situation is dire or the end is nigh. Anything less than what can realistically be done by the company is enough for such. We each swing their actions in some way even though it's a very slow process. I'm pretty sure this one will too given time despite the naysayers who are willingly short sighted in their take of the situation.

So if i understand correctly what you say here, everyone agreeing with you is right and doing a good thing for the community, everyone disagreeing is intellectually deficient and a weight for the community. It was nice talking to you but really, don’t stop yourself from ignoring me from now on.
Edit : my bad not intellectually deficient, just dishonest. Because of course you are so obviously right that not agreeing must be lack of honesty.

You didn't understand it correctly but nevermind. Thanks for your projections. Move on.

That is true but then again your example doesn’t show anything unfair going on. You say that as if gearing luminara in june 2016 prevented you to gear chewie when he did last month but it doesn’t. Every character he got you could have gotten too exactly when he got them since you were playing when he was. Every ressource he used you could have used the exact same. Meaning if you both made smart choices, the only ways he caught up are by being more active, getting more ressources (better arena ranks and such) or spending more money. If any of those things make him better than you in ga now, wouldn’t you say it’s deserved ?

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it. I'm also not complaining about GA matchmaking in any way (other than feeling bad for someone really outclassed). I'm just saying your statement "if « back in the days this was not considered fluff » is true, then most players should have this fluff," was not necessarily correct.

Meh. Calling people sandbaggers for not activating their trash is a red herring. It's not accurate and arguing about it is irrelevant to the actual problem of GA matchmaking.

I think you are misreading or half reading the topic. It's the system he brings into the question. Anyway I'll make my argument leading from there:

So are we all going to start sandbagging starting from here? I sure am as long as the current matchmaking system stays in place. That will in turn hurt my enjoyment of the game and encourage me to do less than I can easily can with my current resources.

Meh. Calling people sandbaggers for not activating their trash is a red herring. It's not accurate and arguing about it is irrelevant to the actual problem of GA matchmaking.

I think you are misreading or half reading the topic. It's the system he brings into the question. Anyway I'll make my argument leading from there:

So are we all going to start sandbagging starting from here? I sure am as long as the current matchmaking system stays in place. That will in turn hurt my enjoyment of the game and encourage me to do less than I can easily can with my current resources.

Are you gonna sandbag as well?

It's a resource and squad management game.... Since when does gearing up the right toons the right way for your preferred game mode equate to sandbagging?

Meh. Calling people sandbaggers for not activating their trash is a red herring. It's not accurate and arguing about it is irrelevant to the actual problem of GA matchmaking.

I think you are misreading or half reading the topic. It's the system he brings into the question. Anyway I'll make my argument leading from there:

So are we all going to start sandbagging starting from here? I sure am as long as the current matchmaking system stays in place. That will in turn hurt my enjoyment of the game and encourage me to do less than I can easily can with my current resources.

Are you gonna sandbag as well?

As much as I hate to admit it I have also stopped working on any characters/ships that aren’t Currently viable.

For the first time ever I also removed mods from almost half my roster.

I feel this is cheap garbage honestly but I have seen far to many lopsided matches. I certainly don’t want to get walked all over. Especially this month, when our TW rewards are linked to our GA rank.

Really feel CG is dropping the ball big time lately. They really don’t seem to be in touch with their player/customer base at all. It seems as though they aren’t thinking things through. CGs actions seem rushed almost.

Meh. Calling people sandbaggers for not activating their trash is a red herring. It's not accurate and arguing about it is irrelevant to the actual problem of GA matchmaking.

I think you are misreading or half reading the topic. It's the system he brings into the question. Anyway I'll make my argument leading from there:

So are we all going to start sandbagging starting from here? I sure am as long as the current matchmaking system stays in place. That will in turn hurt my enjoyment of the game and encourage me to do less than I can easily can with my current resources.

Are you gonna sandbag as well?

This is on point. We have a game where the developers are releasing all these new characters and ships, but there is disincentive to activate and use them unless they are meta-breaking or essential for meta-breaking legendary characters. Is it really a fun experience if we all have the same core characters, and the person who wins is one the who has spent the most money on gear or has gotten the best RNG for speed mods? Whatever happened to experimenting with team composition and synergy? Every new meta team is single-faction now, and the power creep is so bad that you can't even realistically use old Jedi with new Jedi.

I know it's not good for their bottom line, but taking the 40-50 characters that are currently trash and reworking them would go a long way to solving some of these issues. It would make the players with roster bloat immediately more competitive, and it would add a lot more in the way of fun theory-crafting and variance in arena/TW/GA, etc. Or add some events with good rewards where you need a pimped out Gamorrean Guard or Mob Enforcer to play.

Meh. Calling people sandbaggers for not activating their trash is a red herring. It's not accurate and arguing about it is irrelevant to the actual problem of GA matchmaking.

I think you are misreading or half reading the topic. It's the system he brings into the question. Anyway I'll make my argument leading from there:

So are we all going to start sandbagging starting from here? I sure am as long as the current matchmaking system stays in place. That will in turn hurt my enjoyment of the game and encourage me to do less than I can easily can with my current resources.

Are you gonna sandbag as well?

This is on point. We have a game where the developers are releasing all these new characters and ships, but there is disincentive to activate and use them unless they are meta-breaking or essential for meta-breaking legendary characters. Is it really a fun experience if we all have the same core characters, and the person who wins is one the who has spent the most money on gear or has gotten the best RNG for speed mods? Whatever happened to experimenting with team composition and synergy? Every new meta team is single-faction now, and the power creep is so bad that you can't even realistically use old Jedi with new Jedi.

I know it's not good for their bottom line, but taking the 40-50 characters that are currently trash and reworking them would go a long way to solving some of these issues. It would make the players with roster bloat immediately more competitive, and it would add a lot more in the way of fun theory-crafting and variance in arena/TW/GA, etc. Or add some events with good rewards where you need a pimped out Gamorrean Guard or Mob Enforcer to play.

Resulting in dozens of posts from other people complaining that they are being “forced” to work on useless characters. Just look at the posts immediately after Ewoks were confirmed for C3.

Meh. Calling people sandbaggers for not activating their trash is a red herring. It's not accurate and arguing about it is irrelevant to the actual problem of GA matchmaking.

I think you are misreading or half reading the topic. It's the system he brings into the question. Anyway I'll make my argument leading from there:

So are we all going to start sandbagging starting from here? I sure am as long as the current matchmaking system stays in place. That will in turn hurt my enjoyment of the game and encourage me to do less than I can easily can with my current resources.

Are you gonna sandbag as well?

This is on point. We have a game where the developers are releasing all these new characters and ships, but there is disincentive to activate and use them unless they are meta-breaking or essential for meta-breaking legendary characters. Is it really a fun experience if we all have the same core characters, and the person who wins is one the who has spent the most money on gear or has gotten the best RNG for speed mods? Whatever happened to experimenting with team composition and synergy? Every new meta team is single-faction now, and the power creep is so bad that you can't even realistically use old Jedi with new Jedi.

I know it's not good for their bottom line, but taking the 40-50 characters that are currently trash and reworking them would go a long way to solving some of these issues. It would make the players with roster bloat immediately more competitive, and it would add a lot more in the way of fun theory-crafting and variance in arena/TW/GA, etc. Or add some events with good rewards where you need a pimped out Gamorrean Guard or Mob Enforcer to play.

Resulting in dozens of posts from other people complaining that they are being “forced” to work on useless characters. Just look at the posts immediately after Ewoks were confirmed for C3.

danged if you do, danged if you don't.

A bet a bunch of people are going to be happily surprised with ewok performance in guild events. I've wanted to work on them forever, but was never "forced". I'm actually stoked they're required.

side note - did you take time off from the game? you used to post a lot a long time ago and then went dark. Always a reasonable voice even if you disagreed with someone else. Good to see you back.

Meh. Calling people sandbaggers for not activating their trash is a red herring. It's not accurate and arguing about it is irrelevant to the actual problem of GA matchmaking.

I think you are misreading or half reading the topic. It's the system he brings into the question. Anyway I'll make my argument leading from there:

So are we all going to start sandbagging starting from here? I sure am as long as the current matchmaking system stays in place. That will in turn hurt my enjoyment of the game and encourage me to do less than I can easily can with my current resources.

Are you gonna sandbag as well?

It's a resource and squad management game.... Since when does gearing up the right toons the right way for your preferred game mode equate to sandbagging?

Meh. Calling people sandbaggers for not activating their trash is a red herring. It's not accurate and arguing about it is irrelevant to the actual problem of GA matchmaking.

I think you are misreading or half reading the topic. It's the system he brings into the question. Anyway I'll make my argument leading from there:

So are we all going to start sandbagging starting from here? I sure am as long as the current matchmaking system stays in place. That will in turn hurt my enjoyment of the game and encourage me to do less than I can easily can with my current resources.

Are you gonna sandbag as well?

It's a resource and squad management game.... Since when does gearing up the right toons the right way for your preferred game mode equate to sandbagging?

Since when the definition of sandbagging was made. Read about it .

Lmao..... So you are saying these people intentionally built their rosters from day one knowing that some day grand arena would be here and the matchmaking would be like this?....

Meh. Calling people sandbaggers for not activating their trash is a red herring. It's not accurate and arguing about it is irrelevant to the actual problem of GA matchmaking.

I think you are misreading or half reading the topic. It's the system he brings into the question. Anyway I'll make my argument leading from there:

So are we all going to start sandbagging starting from here? I sure am as long as the current matchmaking system stays in place. That will in turn hurt my enjoyment of the game and encourage me to do less than I can easily can with my current resources.

Are you gonna sandbag as well?

It's a resource and squad management game.... Since when does gearing up the right toons the right way for your preferred game mode equate to sandbagging?

Since when the definition of sandbagging was made. Read about it .

Lmao..... So you are saying these people intentionally built their rosters from day one knowing that some day grand arena would be here and the matchmaking would be like this?....

Nope, it's going from the time GA is introduced this action became sandbagging as it entails "to lower one's competetive rating to have a better chance to win". It's the matchmaking design's fault players started to and will sandbag.

Meh. Calling people sandbaggers for not activating their trash is a red herring. It's not accurate and arguing about it is irrelevant to the actual problem of GA matchmaking.

I think you are misreading or half reading the topic. It's the system he brings into the question. Anyway I'll make my argument leading from there:

So are we all going to start sandbagging starting from here? I sure am as long as the current matchmaking system stays in place. That will in turn hurt my enjoyment of the game and encourage me to do less than I can easily can with my current resources.

Are you gonna sandbag as well?

It's a resource and squad management game.... Since when does gearing up the right toons the right way for your preferred game mode equate to sandbagging?

Since when the definition of sandbagging was made. Read about it .

Lmao..... So you are saying these people intentionally built their rosters from day one knowing that some day grand arena would be here and the matchmaking would be like this?....

Nope, it's going from the time GA is introduced this action became sandbagging as it entails "to lower one's competetive rating to have a better chance to win". It's the matchmaking design's fault players started to and will sandbag.

Meh. Calling people sandbaggers for not activating their trash is a red herring. It's not accurate and arguing about it is irrelevant to the actual problem of GA matchmaking.

I think you are misreading or half reading the topic. It's the system he brings into the question. Anyway I'll make my argument leading from there:

So are we all going to start sandbagging starting from here? I sure am as long as the current matchmaking system stays in place. That will in turn hurt my enjoyment of the game and encourage me to do less than I can easily can with my current resources.

Are you gonna sandbag as well?

This is on point. We have a game where the developers are releasing all these new characters and ships, but there is disincentive to activate and use them unless they are meta-breaking or essential for meta-breaking legendary characters. Is it really a fun experience if we all have the same core characters, and the person who wins is one the who has spent the most money on gear or has gotten the best RNG for speed mods? Whatever happened to experimenting with team composition and synergy? Every new meta team is single-faction now, and the power creep is so bad that you can't even realistically use old Jedi with new Jedi.

I know it's not good for their bottom line, but taking the 40-50 characters that are currently trash and reworking them would go a long way to solving some of these issues. It would make the players with roster bloat immediately more competitive, and it would add a lot more in the way of fun theory-crafting and variance in arena/TW/GA, etc. Or add some events with good rewards where you need a pimped out Gamorrean Guard or Mob Enforcer to play.

Resulting in dozens of posts from other people complaining that they are being “forced” to work on useless characters. Just look at the posts immediately after Ewoks were confirmed for C3.

danged if you do, danged if you don't.

A bet a bunch of people are going to be happily surprised with ewok performance in guild events. I've wanted to work on them forever, but was never "forced". I'm actually stoked they're required.

side note - did you take time off from the game? you used to post a lot a long time ago and then went dark. Always a reasonable voice even if you disagreed with someone else. Good to see you back.

I didn’t take time off from the game, just the forum. It had become a toxic place for me and was affecting me on a personal level so I needed to walk away from it for a while.

Meh. Calling people sandbaggers for not activating their trash is a red herring. It's not accurate and arguing about it is irrelevant to the actual problem of GA matchmaking.

I think you are misreading or half reading the topic. It's the system he brings into the question. Anyway I'll make my argument leading from there:

So are we all going to start sandbagging starting from here? I sure am as long as the current matchmaking system stays in place. That will in turn hurt my enjoyment of the game and encourage me to do less than I can easily can with my current resources.

Are you gonna sandbag as well?

It's a resource and squad management game.... Since when does gearing up the right toons the right way for your preferred game mode equate to sandbagging?

Since when the definition of sandbagging was made. Read about it .

Lmao..... So you are saying these people intentionally built their rosters from day one knowing that some day grand arena would be here and the matchmaking would be like this?....

Nope, it's going from the time GA is introduced this action became sandbagging as it entails "to lower one's competetive rating to have a better chance to win". It's the matchmaking design's fault players started to and will sandbag.

Meh. Calling people sandbaggers for not activating their trash is a red herring. It's not accurate and arguing about it is irrelevant to the actual problem of GA matchmaking.

I think you are misreading or half reading the topic. It's the system he brings into the question. Anyway I'll make my argument leading from there:

So are we all going to start sandbagging starting from here? I sure am as long as the current matchmaking system stays in place. That will in turn hurt my enjoyment of the game and encourage me to do less than I can easily can with my current resources.

Are you gonna sandbag as well?

It's a resource and squad management game.... Since when does gearing up the right toons the right way for your preferred game mode equate to sandbagging?

Since when the definition of sandbagging was made. Read about it .

Lmao..... So you are saying these people intentionally built their rosters from day one knowing that some day grand arena would be here and the matchmaking would be like this?....

Nope, it's going from the time GA is introduced this action became sandbagging as it entails "to lower one's competetive rating to have a better chance to win". It's the matchmaking design's fault players started to and will sandbag.

Except as hats not the definition of as sandbagging.....

Huh? You still didn't use that **** google, did you?

The definition of sandbagging according to google (which I apparently don't use)

"To deliberately underperform in a race or competition to gain a better position"

It's a resource management game..... If you are dilligentjy managing your resources to give yourself a competitive advantage, then you certainly aren't underperforming.......

Meh. Calling people sandbaggers for not activating their trash is a red herring. It's not accurate and arguing about it is irrelevant to the actual problem of GA matchmaking.

I think you are misreading or half reading the topic. It's the system he brings into the question. Anyway I'll make my argument leading from there:

So are we all going to start sandbagging starting from here? I sure am as long as the current matchmaking system stays in place. That will in turn hurt my enjoyment of the game and encourage me to do less than I can easily can with my current resources.

Are you gonna sandbag as well?

This is on point. We have a game where the developers are releasing all these new characters and ships, but there is disincentive to activate and use them unless they are meta-breaking or essential for meta-breaking legendary characters. Is it really a fun experience if we all have the same core characters, and the person who wins is one the who has spent the most money on gear or has gotten the best RNG for speed mods? Whatever happened to experimenting with team composition and synergy? Every new meta team is single-faction now, and the power creep is so bad that you can't even realistically use old Jedi with new Jedi.

I know it's not good for their bottom line, but taking the 40-50 characters that are currently trash and reworking them would go a long way to solving some of these issues. It would make the players with roster bloat immediately more competitive, and it would add a lot more in the way of fun theory-crafting and variance in arena/TW/GA, etc. Or add some events with good rewards where you need a pimped out Gamorrean Guard or Mob Enforcer to play.

Resulting in dozens of posts from other people complaining that they are being “forced” to work on useless characters. Just look at the posts immediately after Ewoks were confirmed for C3.

danged if you do, danged if you don't.

A bet a bunch of people are going to be happily surprised with ewok performance in guild events. I've wanted to work on them forever, but was never "forced". I'm actually stoked they're required.

side note - did you take time off from the game? you used to post a lot a long time ago and then went dark. Always a reasonable voice even if you disagreed with someone else. Good to see you back.

I didn’t take time off from the game, just the forum. It had become a toxic place for me and was affecting me on a personal level so I needed to walk away from it for a while.